Traditional history and first contact

Their traditional history describes their origins in terms of waves of migration that culminated in the arrival of a “great fleet” in the 14th century from Hawaiki, a mythical land usually identified as Tahiti. This historical account provides the basis for traditional Maori social organization and is generally supported by archaeological discoveries, which have dated Maori arrival in New Zealand to about 1300 ce. Members of each tribe (iwi) recognized a common ancestry (which might be traced through either or both parents) and common allegiance to a chief or chiefs (ariki). Traditionally, at the day-to-day level, the most important social groups were the hapuu (subtribe), which was the primary landholding group and the one within which marriage was preferred, and the whaanau, or extended family.

This social order was in force when Abel Tasman, the first European contact, arrived off the coast of New Zealand in December 1642. He did battle with a group of Maori on South Island and left the area largely unexplored. In 1769–70 Captain James Cook circumnavigated the two major islands and wrote about the intelligence of the Maori and the suitability of New Zealand for colonization. Whalers, sealers, and other Europeans seeking profit were initially welcomed by the Maori. With the introduction of muskets, disease, Western agricultural methods, and missionaries, Maori culture and social structure began to disintegrate. By the late 1830s New Zealand had been joined to Europe, and European settlers landed by the score.

After the British assumed formal control of New Zealand in 1840, European settlement and government began to alarm the Maori, especially in North Island. In 1845 some Maori chieftains began ravaging the Bay of Islands and other areas of the far north (in what has sometimes been called the First Maori War), and they were not finally suppressed until 1847, by colonial forces under Governor Sir George Grey. His victories brought a peace that lasted from 1847 to 1860.

The so-called King Movement was a response to the increasing threat to the Maori land. In 1857 several tribes of the Waikato area of North Island elected as king Te Wherowhero, who reigned as Potatau I. In addition to electing a king, they established a council of state, a judicial system, and a police organization, all of which were intended to support Maori resolve to retain their land and to stop the intertribal warfare over the issue. Not all Maori accepted the authority of the king, but the majority shared with the King Movement the resolve not to sell the land.

Until 1860 the Maori still owned most of the land of North Island, but a large increase in the number of immigrants in the 1850s led to demands for greatly increased land purchase by the government. Many Maori were determined not to sell. In 1859 Te Teira, a Maori of the Taranaki area, sold his Waitara River land to the colonial government without the consent of his tribe, precipitating the First Taranaki War (1860–61). Only the extremist wing of the King Movement joined in the First Taranaki War.

Maori versus pakeha

The war consisted essentially of a series of generally successful sieges of Maoripas (fortified villages) by British troops and militia. The British were defeated during an attack (June 1860) on Puketakauere pa when the Maori executed a surprise counterattack, but the Maori were defeated at Orongomai in October and Mahoetahi in November. The war ended in a truce after the surrender of the Te Arei pa in late March 1861. The Maori remained in possession of the European-owned Tataraimaka block of land.

The fighting resumed in the Second Taranaki War in April 1863 after Governor Grey built an attack road into the Waikato area and drove the Taranaki Maori from the Tataraimaka block. While fighting raged in Taranaki once again, the Waikato War began in July 1863, and the Waikato River region, the centre of the King Movement tribes, became the main target of the Europeans. Once again the war was decided by sieges of Maori pas, but the Maori also began to employ guerrilla tactics. British troops were aided by gunboats and forest ranger units made up of colonial volunteers. The Europeans won notable victories at Meremere in October 1863 and at Rangiriri in November. The fall of the Orakau pa in early April 1864 essentially brought the Waikato War to an end.

The last of the wars—known to the Europeans as “the fire in the fern” and to the Maori as te riri pakeha, “the white man’s anger,”—was fought from 1864 to 1872. Hostilities spread to virtually the whole of North Island. The main Maori combatants in the mid-60s were the fanatic Hauhau warriors. The British government wanted to conclude peace in 1864, but the colonial government, wishing to acquire more land, continued the war and assumed an increasing share of the fighting. In July 1865 Grey led the capture of Weroroa pa in southern Taranaki. European and supporting Maori forces (increasingly numerous after 1864) checked each new effort by the King Movement tribes. From 1868 to 1872, the Hauhau were supplemented by members of a new warrior cult, Ringatu, founded and led by a guerrilla leader, Te Kooti.

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